Dick Cheney emerged from the lead-lined underground chamber where he keeps his backup hearts on Thursday night to give a speech in Florida. He strode onstage to the Imperial March from Star Wars, aka Darth Vader’s theme song. Cheney has previously said he is “honored” when Democrats and Jon Stewart compare him to Darth Vader.

Politico reports, too, that Cheney said nothing in his speech about friendly hand puppet George W., choosing to focus instead on his continued belief that Obama is bad: “My impression is that Obama is eager to get out of town. I’m eager to have him get out of town.” But his presence nonetheless disquieted Republicans, who’d like this election to have nothing to do with the previous Bush’s presidency:

On Thursday, Republicans cheered and chuckled when he appeared on stage to the accompaniment of “The Imperial March,” but a few groused about the message his appearance sent.

One Jeb Bush donor said Cheney’s appearance was “really dumb unless you want to cause grief for Jeb,” pointing out that Cheney was “architect of [his] brother’s most-controversial policies and subject of papa’s new book rant, all while you are desperately trying to be a ‘disruptor’ and not talk about W.”

Marco Rubio also reportedly made brief remarks, but it doesn’t sound like anyone was really paying attention.

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Cheney previously appeared dressed as Darth Vader on Jay Leno’s show in 2011, a not entirely fitting costume, considering he is, in fact, the embodiment of the banality of evil.